Jan 10, 2008

Les Pêcheurs de Perles in Colombo





This will probably interest nobody but me...

Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles takes place on the island of Ceylan (now Sri Lanka).
Well, for the first time ever, the opera is actually being performed in Sri Lanka since yesterday (Jan 9 & 11), and it seems like THE event not to miss in January in Colombo.


Cast

Leïla - Aude Priya-Engel
Nadir - Jamie Allen
Zurga - Vikrant Subramaniam (18-yr old!)
Nourabad - Philippe Désandré
Conductor - Benjamin Levy
Stage director - Patricia Panton
Much of the chorus, orchestra and dancers in the near 120-member cast are from Sri Lanka.

The 42,000-dollar budget for the opera was funded by governments of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka Tourist Board), India (ICCR, Indian Council for Cultural Relations), France (The French Embassy in Sri Lanka) and private sponsors (Sri Lanka Telecom, Delair Events from Delmage group, The High Commission of Sri Lanka in India/ The India Sri Lanka foundation, CulturesFrance in Paris, Lafarge, BMICH Auditorium, Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, Maharaja Group, Wijeya Newspapers, The Galle Literary Festival).


More on the matter:

- "Come to the opera!", Madhushala Senaratne, The Sunday Times
- "Bizet opera set in Sri Lanka finally comes home", Mel Gunasekera, AFP
- "The waves of the coast of Sri Lanka bring the music of Bizet to you", to know more about the cast
- "Opera places Colombo in the ‘Spotlight’ in January", Sri Lanka Tourism
- "Patricia Panton. Pearl Fishers. Bizet. Apartheid. South Africa", Jagath Dheerasekara


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